Call to ban orang-utan kickboxing bouts

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An international animal rights group has called on Thailand to ban controversial kickboxing fights between endangered orang-utans held daily at a Bangkok wildlife park.

The orang-utans, wearing boxing gloves and garish shorts, are put in a ring and encouraged to fight their opponents using fists, knees, elbows and feet.

The operators of the Safari World animal park say the fights - which start with the Rocky movie theme and include chimpanzees wearing bikinis carrying cards with the bout number - are choreographed and that no animal is harmed.

But animal rights groups said the apes were being exploited for easy profits and they were destined for a short and miserable existence after their days in the ring were over.

"It's outrageous. There's no question of it being justifiable in any sort of way," said Cyril Rosen, a board member of the International Primate Protection League.

"Most young animals are very flexible and they do what they are told, it's what happens to them afterwards. Their eventual fate is an early death," he said.

Such treatment of the endangered orang-utans could have a long-term effect on the species' survival and called for a tourist boycott of the park.

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If orang-utans were deprived of their long upbringing, they lost their maternal instincts, which in turn hit their chances of breeding, he said.

"They are doing no good to the animals, no good to the species and making a mockery of the animal," he said.

Not everyone is concerned. At a show yesterday, the audience cheered enthusiastically as two orang-utans named Sum Luck and Num Singh pummelled each other.

"If we were doing a cruel show we do not have to let anyone tell us. We would cancel it ourselves," Safari World managing director Pin Kewkacha said.

"This show has been there for 20 years without anyone complaining about it because it is merely an action show," he added.

But Thai animals rights groups say they have contacted Safari World about the orangutan fights many times in the past.

"We have tried to talk for so many years, to try to stop this but they won't stop because it is good for business and not illegal," said Roger Lohanan from the group, Thai Solidarity for Protection of Animals.

"There is not an animal cruelty law in Thailand covering this sort of thing," he added.

Orang-utans are native to Indonesia and Malaysia but hunting and loss of habitat has seen their numbers tumble to fewer than 20,000, according to the Orangutan Foundation.

The demands are growing for an end to the animal brawling, with Taiwanese animal activists also calling on tourists to boycott the safari park.